


New Friend, Reluctant Champion

by Entwinedlove



Category: Captain America (Movies), Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Meetings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:22:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26174926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entwinedlove/pseuds/Entwinedlove
Summary: Tyrion isn't alone in his Skycell in the Eyrie.
Relationships: Bucky Barnes & Tyrion Lannister
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25
Collections: Alternate Universe Exchange 2020





	New Friend, Reluctant Champion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aurilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurilly/gifts).



As the grit cut into Tyrion's palms, the prison door slammed shut behind him. When he stood he noticed the opening. He'd learned about the Eyrie's Skycells, of course, but he never thought he'd see the inside of one. He could feel the slight slope of the floor as he walked towards the edge to look over. The sight that greeted him was more intimidating than the Wall even though he knew the drop to the ground was shorter.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice said from the far corner of the inside of the cell.

Tyrion startled a little and was quick to move closer to the interior wall. It was very dark here, but it only took a few moments for his eyesight to adjust to the dimness. There was a man sitting in the corner. His hair was lank and dark, and stubble shadowed his face. He had no distinguishable feature that identified him as one of the Great Houses, and his clothes were the same. Plain and sturdy, with a bit of wear and dust on them. He looked to be holding something on the wall with his left hand; perhaps there was an iron ring there, though it seemed an odd place for one.

"I'm Tyrion Lannister."

"Bucky Barnes."

Tyrion tried not to frown. "I've never heard of the House of Barnes."

"It's not that popular a name back home either," Bucky said, grinning wryly. "What are you in here for? You're some sort of noble, aren't you?"

"I'm a member of one the Great Houses and my sister is the Queen," Tyrion answered despite feeling dumbfounded. How could this man hear the name Lannister and not know who he was? "I've been accused of arranging a murder that was thwarted."

Bucky didn't seem worried about the accusation. Tyrion didn't blame him, he knew his stature wasn't intimidating. "Did you do it?" Bucky asked. There was something like nonchalance in his tone, and it intrigued Tyrion, just a bit.

"No, but it's unlikely they'll believe me." Tyrion turned to pace along the back wall, looking up at the little window in the barred door. He was still trying to figure out how to get himself out of this mess. When he turned back to look at Bucky, he could see his figure better. Bucky's shoulders and arms were thick with muscle, and were he to be standing, he'd be quite tall. "How about you? Why are you here?"

Bucky shifted and brought his left arm out of the shadows. Tyrion's eyebrows raised as he saw that the other man hadn't been holding an iron ring on the wall but had been holding a perfect hand-shaped wedge between broken stones. It was only when something glinted off Bucky's wrist even in the dim light that he looked down. "This scared the woman and the little boy," he said, pushing his sleeve up to show his arm.

"What... how..." Tyrion couldn't find his wit or words. The man before him seemed to be brandishing a metal arm! And not just a metal prosthesis in the shape of a lost arm, no, this moved as if it were his real arm. "I suppose that makes carrying a shield redundant?"

Bucky's eyes narrowed for a moment but then shook his head. "I know how to fight but not like those guys in there with their armour and swords." He flexed, and Tyrion could hear the slightest whirring sound under the whistle of the wind beyond the Skycell. It reminded him of a moving trinket box he'd found of his mother's when he was a child before Tywin had stored her things away for good. "I think a sword would wedge itself between the plates and damage it. It's not like I can get it repaired here... wherever here is."

"You don't know where you are?"

Bucky shook his head.

"You're in the Eyrie, in the Vale of Arryn." When he didn't get anything like recognition, he added, "In Westeros."

Bucky shrugged. "I don't think I'm on my home planet. Or the right dimension or something. I was glad to find that we at least speak a common language. This society is really different than mine."

Tyrion's eyes widened. "You can't be..." but he trailed off. He looked from Bucky's honest-looking face to his metal arm. "You are serious." The other man nodded. "We can't let you rot in here, then!" Tyrion came closer. "Are you sure you wouldn't be able to fight one of the knights out there? There's no rule saying you can't fight dirty," he said with a grin.

Bucky met his eyes. "I'm not particularly fond of fighting, but I'm capable. Even against an armoured knight if I have to."

"I'd pay you."

Bucky's eyes narrowed, and his frown brought his dark eyebrows together. "Why?"

Tyrion grinned and explained.

* * *

Tyrion stood in front of the twisted tree throne of the Eyrie. Lady Lysa Arryn sat with her eight-year-old son Robin on her lap, but at the moment she was not feeding him from her breast as she had when he was brought before them the first time.

"You wish to confess your crimes?" Lady Lysa said.

"I do, my lady," Tyrion said. He then started describing many of the immoral and sinful things he'd done as a young man. He didn't get to finish his joke about a jackass and a honeycomb in a brothel before Lady Lysa shouted silence and demanded to know what he was doing. "Confessing my crimes," was his answer.

"Lord Tyrion," Catelyn Stark said, "You are accused of hiring a man to slay my son Bran in his bed, and conspiring to murder my sister's husband, Lord Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King."

"I'm very sorry, I don't know a thing about all that."

Tyrion tried not to relish Lysa's moment of humiliation and realized his problem when she decided to send him back to the dungeon.

"Is this how justice is done in the Vale? Where is the King's Justice?" he said firmly. "I am accused and demand a trial!"

Lysa looked anxious for a moment before answering. "A trial? If you're tried and found guilty, you pay with your life!" She grinned then, the expression a twisted sort of pleasure. Tyrion almost shivered where he stood. "We have no executioner here; life is more elegant in the Eyrie. Open the moon door."

The sound of grating stone and chain was followed quickly by a howling, cold wind that rushed up from the floor in front of Tyrion. The moon door was a large hole built into the floor of the throne room. The view from where he stood was frightening, even though hazy fog made the jagged mountain rocks below look less sharp.

"You want a trial, Lord Lannister. Very well. My son will hear what you have to say, and you will hear his judgment. Then you will leave, through one door or the other." From where he sat on his mother's lap, Robin shook with giggles.

Tyrion had no doubts what that judgement would be. "No need to bother Lord Robin; I demand a trial by combat."

The crowd tittered and whispered among itself. Men around the room started professing their wish to fight as the lady's champion. She selected one who claimed it wouldn't be a fair fight to slaughter someone half his size. Tyrion agreed and demanded his own champion. His brother.

"No," Lady Lysa said. "The Kingslayer is hundreds of miles from here. The trial will be today."

Tyrion's first thoughts were to ask for a volunteer but he hesitated. "Then I call Bucky Barnes, the man I shared a cell with, to be my champion."

Lysa's eyes grew wide, and she wrapped her arm tighter around Robin, and Tyrion couldn't tell who it was that trembled slightly. "Fine. Bring him."

Tyrion tried to hide a smile. He knew Bucky didn't want to fight, but he would, and winning this trial would get them both out of here. Oddly, he felt something he hadn't experienced in a long time bubbling in his stomach—excitement; he wanted to show his new friend his world.


End file.
